Woodside chief executive officer Peter Coleman has reported that the company’s 2020 annual production was 12 per cent higher than 2019 despite the impact of COVID-19.
Outlined in the company’s 2020 fourth quarter results, Coleman said Woodside’s team delivered significant progress on its growth projects during the quarter.
However, fourth quarter production dropped 2 per cent compared with the third quarter, going from 25.3 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) to 24.9 MMboe.
In 2021, Woodside has set its production guidance to between 90-95 MMboe, following its record annual production of 100.3 MMboe in 2020.
“Production licences were awarded for the processing of Scarborough gas through an expanded Pluto facility and we remain on track for a targeted final investment decision on the development in the second half of this year,” he said.
“Oil and gas prices have strengthened considerably heading into the first quarter of 2021. We agreed to our highest ever spot LNG price for delivery in the coming quarter, surpassing our previous record set in 2012.”
In addition, during the quarter Woodside installed the Pluto water handing module on the Pluto offshore platform to enable wet gas production. The company is targeting ready for start-up this year.
Woodside also developed and commenced deployment of fin-fan condition monitoring at Pluto, which is expected to reduce inspection time by 1500 hours when fully deployed. The condition monitoring is expected save an additional 10,000 hours a year when deployed.
The Greater Western Flank Phase three and Lambert Deep environment plan were also approved in the quarter with the project 19 per cent complete at the end of the quarter.
Woodside also reported that the Pyxis hub was 55 per cent complete and the Julimar-Brunello phase two project was 81 per cent complete.